Grad Student Strike at U. Michigan Reaches Sixth Week
“Graduate student workers at UM currently earn $35 per hour in addition to nearly $13,000 in tuition remittance per semester for in-state students”
There have been a lot of strikes in higher ed this year because the strikers keep getting what they want.
Campus Reform reports:
University of Michigan graduate student strike reaches sixth week
After over six weeks, there appears to be no end in sight for the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) strike at the University of Michigan (UM).
The GEO launched the strike on March 29 after beginning to pressure the university for a “living wage” in November 2022. Graduate student workers at UM currently earn $35 per hour in addition to nearly $13,000 in tuition remittance per semester for in-state students and over $26,000 per semester for out-of-state students.
By contrast, the average hourly wage in Ann Arbor is $28 per hour according to Zip Recruiter. The university also notes that the MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates $18.67 per hour is a living wage in the city.
UM has proposed an agreement to raise the GEO hourly wage to $39 by the third year of the contract, but the GEO is insisting that the hourly wage be raised to $58 by 2026, which is 210% over the living wage in the area. The average college graduate in the United States earns $20 per hour, according to Zip Recruiter.
A variety of other proposed changes are listed in the 2022-2023 GEO Bargaining Platform including, the establishment of a “community-led unarmed emergency response team,” eliminating copays for mental healthcare and dental screenings, and providing “as much parental leave as faculty” to graduate student workers. The university has not assented to any of these terms.
Campus Reform has covered several university systems that have experienced graduate student worker strikes, including the University of California (UC) system and Temple University.
The situation at UM is more complicated, however, because of the anti-striking provision of the current GEO contract.
On April 17, Administrative Law Judge for the state of Michigan David Peltz ruled that the GEO violated its contract by initiating the strike and is currently engaging in unfair labor practices.
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Comments
Oh, no!
Anyway…
Easy fix, let these grad assistants pick, do they get the free admissions or do they keep the already high pay? Facts are that grad assistants are some of the most lazy workers in the industry.
so fire em …. welcome to real world
No! Let them keep striking. Shut down the whole university system for the next twenty years and America will be a better place. 😉
Hey! UofM!
Clue: President Regan and the Air Traffic Controllers Union.
Someone in the History department can help remind you.
>> community-led unarmed emergency response team <<
So they want to make "the mob" a legal entity. Just wait until their response to a micro-aggression is met with a macro-aggression.
I’m sure the regular residents of Ann Arbor would just love to have this pay rate AND extra money besides. Bet there’s a surplus of baristas in town while these whiners aren’t being paid the hourly rate.